On 30.06.2012 10:11, Amit kapila wrote:
ReadRecord(XLogRecPtr *RecPtr, int emode, bool fetching_ckpt)
+ /*
+  * If we got the whole header already, validate it immediately. Otherwise
+  * we validate it after reading the rest of the header from the next page.
+  */
+ if (targetRecOff<= XLOG_BLCKSZ - SizeOfXLogRecord)
+ {
+  if (!ValidXLogRecordHeader(RecPtr, record, emode, randAccess))
+   goto next_record_is_invalid;
+  gotheader = true;
+ }
+ else
+  gotheader = false;
+

Shouldn't the record header validation be done before the check for allocating 
a bigger record buffer based
on total length. Otherwise it may lead to allocation of bigger buffer which may 
not be required if record header is invalid.

Hmm, doing an unnecessary memory allocation just before giving up isn't really a problem. And we treat out-of-memory the same as a corrupt record, so this isn't a correctness issue. But I agree it would still be better to change the order, if only because you're more likely to get a better error message than "out of memory".

In cases where record header is not split, validation can be done before 
otherwise it can be done later.

Committed that way. We could also delay enlarging the buffer until after we read the next page and get the whole header, but it's probably fine as it is.

3. General observation, not related to your changes
XLogInsert(RmgrId rmid, uint8 info, XLogRecData *rdata)
.
.
         if (freespace == 0)
          {
                  updrqst = AdvanceXLInsertBuffer(false);

In the code, AdvanceXLInsertBuffer(false); is called after starting critical 
section and acquiring
WALInsertLock, now if any error occurs inside  AdvanceXLInsertBuffer()
(in one of the paths it calls XLogWrite(), from which it can call 
XLogFileInit() where error can occur);
how will it release WALInsertLock or end critical section.

Yep, if an I/O error happens while writing a WAL record - running out of disk space is the typical example - we PANIC. Nope, it's not ideal.

Even if we somehow managed to avoid doing I/O in the critical section in XLogInsert(), most callers of XLogInsert() surround the call in a critical section anyway. For example, when a new tuple is inserted to heap, once you've modified the page to add the new tuple, it's too late to back out. The WAL record is written while holding the lock on the page, and if something goes wrong with writing the WAL record, we have no choice but PANIC.

It would be nice to avoid that, at least for the common out-of-disk-space case. Perhaps we could somehow pre-reserve some WAL space before starting to modify the page. But that's a pretty big project..

--
  Heikki Linnakangas
  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com

--
Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers

Reply via email to